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Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy
I suppose it depends on the tradition. I'm coming at it from the perspective of Advaita and from that perspective chitta, buddhi, manas and ahamkara are all things, temporary appearances of and within Chit. Chit (Consciousness) is not something and it's not nothing. It's No Thing.
As I understand even dualist systems like Yoga have this same understanding, the main difference being Yoga subscribes to many Chits while Advaita subscribes to one without a second.
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ok. let us clarify what is meant by each of these traditional terms and their inter-relationship in common english.
I googled for these terms and came across something interesting:
I quote from this webpage:
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1) Manas is your Conscious Mind and Buddhi is your Wisdom Faculty (saurab: i agree with this terminology)
2) Chitta is Subconscious Mind (saurab: let us take it as this but I dont know. Anyone reading this thread may please elaborate if he knows the meaning of the word chitta)
3) On the floor of Chitta, are stored Samskaras (memories, likes, dislikes,desires, habits) in dormant form (saurab: yes then chitta is subconscious mind)
4) Whenever any Samskaras get triggered, they become Vrittis (Subconscious thoughts). Samskaras get triggered due to Ahamkara
5) Ahamkara is false knowledge of self i.e. when we keep considering ourselves other than Atman (true self)
6) In this state of Ahamkara, Manas (Conscious mind) keeps continuously running under control of Vrittis (Subconscious Thoughts)
7) Both Conscious and Subconscious thoughts reflect as Emotions. Emotions block flow of Prana (life energy) which in long term causes diseases in Physical Body.
8) Manas keeps trying to calm down Emotions, by bringing solutions from external world through Sensory Pleasures.
9) Manas also runs to increase clarity of Buddhi. When you know something with utmost clarity, that means there is no further requirement to run conscious mind on that knowledge. That means clear knowledge brings Manas at peace. So whenever Subconscious pushes a confused knowledge to the screen of Manas, it starts running to remove that confusion.
10) Clear knowledge without confusion becomes Wisdom of Buddhi. Wisdom takes you towards ultimate freedom i.e. True knowledge of self. So Wisdom washes away Ahamkara (false knowledge of self)
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okay, so memory itself is both peripheral and deeper in the various layers of the mind. also there are two things awareness and consciousness for lack of better words. focus not on the meaning of consciousness and awareness, but that there are two kinds of observing. One kind of observing is free from the mind and body, where as the other kind of observing is entangled in the mind and body/. I think this is fairly obvious.
At the lowest level of consciousness, we have the survival instinct. That survival instinct makes certain kinds of animals treat everyone as either a friend or an enemy, and every situation as a safe situation or a threat.
The second center is the sexual center. etc etc etc.
So, at every "level" of consciousness, we have a different way of looking at the world. And what is the relationship between awareness and survival consciousness ?
Survival consciousness is like looking with coloured glasses at the world. So awareness is still the substratum, but it is filtered down and corrupted by the time it "reaches" the survival consciousness way of looking at the world.
Now what is the relationship between memory and awareness ? There is no relationship between the two for awareness, but for memory there is a one-way relationship: namely, that memory is the by-product of awareness in the mind.
And what is the relationship between memory and consciousness ? Consciousness is made up of memory, which is the by-product of awareness in the mind.
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